A distributed ledger (DL) refers to a non-centralized database system for recording a series of transactions and for ensuring the integrity of those transactions. Distributed ledgers are maintained by a peer-network of nodes where every node has a copy of the distributed ledger and has equal authority to add to it. The series of transactions, which can be data of any sort. Once added, data cannot be altered or removed without being detected. This provides an inherent trustworthiness of the data. In order to be useful, the data must be indexed into a searchable database. Indexing requires significant storage space as well as downtime, which prohibits each node from maintaining an individual search index, but data integrity inherent in a distributed ledger may be lost when relying on another to maintain the searchable database.
The Figures of the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, as their dimensions can be varied considerably without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.